POLAND 

HER PROBLEMS 

AND 

HER FUTURE 



BY 

His Excellency HUGH GIBSON 

American Minister to Poland 
AND 

SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN 

President of the Baldwin Locomotive Works 



AMERICAN POLISH CHAMBER OF 
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 

40 West 40th Street New York 



.^6 



AO 



THE ECONOMIC FUTURE 
OF POLAND 

BY 

SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN 

President of the Baldwin Locomotive Works 

THE IDEALS OF POLAND 

BY 

His Excellency HUGH GIBSON 

American Minister to Poland 



ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE 
INAUGURAL LUNCHEON OF THE 

AMERICAN-POLISH 
CHAMBER o/COMMERCE and INDUSTRY 

AT THE 

BANKER'S CLUB, NEW YORK CITY 



May 27, 1920 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
REC&IYEO 

MAR3-1921 

DOCUMENTS DIVISION 




POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

The Economic Future 
of Poland 

By Samuel M. Vauclain 

'0 you Mr. President, your excellency, and 
you my Business Friends of this United 
States, the greatest and best of all abid- 
ing places this side of Heaven, I give greeting: 
Today we have met to place in active service a 
new organization launched but a few short weeks 
ago and known as the American-Polish Chamber 
of Commerce. 

The President selected to preside over this Our debt 
new organization is especially fitted for the posi- ^^ Poland 
tion on account of the position he holds. He is 
Vice President of The Baldwin Locomotive 
Works and has entire charge of the foreign busi- 
ness of this company. What a future there is for 
this new chamber! Its power still undeveloped 
will unite two great peoples through business 
channels in an indissoluble manner and in a 
measure will return to this new Poland some 
of the debt of gratitude we all owe to the old 
Poland whose heroic sons aided so greatly in 
establishing this nation and this government of 
the people. 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

Have we, American business men, become so 
absorbed in the American Dollar, whose eagle 
conveys to one's mind its fleeting character, that 
we are blind to the extreme necessities of our 
sister republic south of the Baltic and sand- 
wiched between Russia and Germany, or more 
correctly speaking, between the devil and the 
Deep Sea? 
The free state gy wonderful foresight of our land distribu- 

oj anzig ^^^g during the Peace Conclave, Poland has been 
launched without her rightful outlet to the sea, 
the port of Danzig. A free state has been created 
for the purpose of adding complication and ex- 
pense to Poland's exports and imports by the 
sea. But Poland is brave and resourceful. She 
can get along without Danzig, but, believe me, 
Danzig cannot exist without Poland. Already 
it has been found necessary to permit Poland to 
operate all railways in this free state so that 
something can be accomplished toward maintain- 
ing the business of the port and furnish employ- 
ment to the Danzig people. 

Poland in Poland to me appeared to be in splendid 
splendid condition ! Naturally that section over which the 
«P^ armies of Russia and Germany had fought back- 
ward and forward for more than four years does 
not compare with the Eden of France, but, my 
friends, every peasant, every business man, and 
every financier in Poland is up and doing, thus 
assuring Poland's future. 

6 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

Instead of sending my office boy to this country 
I went myself as the company which I represent 
had by my persuasion sold this new untried na- 
tion, as it is called, many milhons of dollars 
worth of locomotives. In fact, we have been the 
pioneers in this trade and hope circumstances 
may permit us to continue. AH business now 
must naturally be done on a credit basis of some 
sort; but do not be afraid, my friends, your 
money will return to you with interest, and when 
you go before your God you will learn that your 
acts toward this new government will have been 
recorded. 

America can spend miUions of dollars if so Want aid 
inclined sending food-stuffs and clothing into to work 
Central and South-Eastern Europe, but no per- 
manent good would ensue. These wonderful 
peoples in their effort to rise from their ashes of a 
long continued war do not want charity; they do 
not want you to pauperize them to the sHghtest 
degree. What they do want, and which they pray 
for constantly, is your confidence in them, and a 
willingness to trust them for a period of time for 
such machinery and materials of all kinds as will 
enable them to work, work, work — to develop 
their resources — to export their surplus and by 
their own earnest effort become strong, self-sup- 
porting, and dignified. 

If you think this new government of Poland 
is weak, forget it. My business dealings with the 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

Minister of Finance of Poland, in the city of 
Warsaw, were more quickly and satisfactorily 
transacted than were previous similar transac- 
tions with our own government, and I was 
impressed with the breadth of view and the con- 
fidence shown in me — a stranger, but an Amer- 
ican. 
A lusty infant It is true that Poland as we know it was born 
country \^^i ^ y^^iY and a half ago. Most people consider 
the child a weakling, but after personal observa- 
tion, I challenge the statement. This infant re- 
public has already passed the bottle period and 
''Beefsteak and Onions" will hereafter do the 
rest. 

''Beefsteak The mission of the American-Polish Chamber 
and Onions' jg jq promote trade, between our countries. 
Trade is the ' 'Beefsteak and Onions" previously 
referred to. First is needed a few locomotives to 
tide over the situation, until the locomotives now 
there can be repaired and placed in service. 
Locomotives in Central and South-Eastern Eu- 
rope were as observed by me of three classes — 
Locomotives 1st, Those that could never be repaired to 

are needed ^^^ again dead. 

2nd, Those awaiting general repairs but with- 
out hope as no machinery or materials are now 
available. 

3rd, Those that are running — All afflicted with 
the "Rickets" due to lack of attention and nour- 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

ishing food — and liable to expire at any time. 
The shrieks of the whistles of good new Bald- 
win Locomotives can now be heard throughout 
northern Poland and may I ask you to say who 
will come to the front and supply a similar num- 
ber of the south of Poland, the land of great 
mineral wealth — coal and oil in endless streams 
could be exported if only transportation were at 
hand. 

As soon as transportation can be bettered all 
sorts of textile machinery and materials are 
needed to employ the peoples who are restive 
for action. 

Finally agricultural machinery to cheapen and 
increase production, but at present more food- 
stuffs are produced than transportation facili- 
ties can distribute. 

I could tell you of this very wonderful country / want 
and its people much more — I have only touched action 
upon the matter, but what I want now is action 
from you. I want not that you take my word 
for your guidance, but do as I have done — go 
see for yourself — go see the government min- 
isters. You will find them men like yourselves. 
If you will do this I am not afraid of the result. 
Since my arrival home last Sunday from Poland 
and South-Eastern Europe, numerous articles 
have appeared in the newspapers of the country 
based upon interviews with myself, Dr. Taylor 

9 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

and also a Red Cross speech by one of my most 
respected friends. It is true that $500,000,000. 
could be spent in Central Europe to feed that per- 
centage of the population which is willing to 
accept alms. 

Give credits Have you ever thought how many hundred 
not alms millions might be spent right here in the United 
States for the same purpose? But even after 
such a sum would have been spent in this 
manner what would we have accomplished? 
Nothing, absolutely nothing — we would only do 
harm, for by putting off the day for which all 
are looking and praying, the day when honest 
work will be theirs, we merely increase pauperism 
far beyond the point it has now reached, and, 
therefore, unless we cease to supply mere sus- 
tenance to those who are needy and may accept, 
we are sure to more permanently injure these 
wonderful peoples. 
The use of It is the general opinion that the five hundred 

large funds millions of dollars suggested by my friend toward 
the relief of Europe is, owing to his connection 
with the Red Cross, considered entirely for the 
physical relief of those who are in distress and 
in want of food and medical attention, but if I 
understand his proposition clearly, it is intended 
that were the government to provide such a fund, 
that it should be administered by three reliable 
business men so that from this sum of money so 
appropriated by the government of the United 

10 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

States, that the tools and material could be pro- 
vided whereby these people could at once begin 
to earn their own living, and that merely the 
support necessary in the interim to provide 
against complete disaster would be taken from 
the sum so appropriated. 

But there is little hope to us in this direction 
as after a week's careful inquiry among those 
in Washington, through whom such an appro- 
priation would have to be made, I have ascer- 
tained that at the present time no appropriation 
of any kind will be granted by this Congress, 
therefore we must look elsewhere for immediate 
assistance, and we, ourselves, must blaze the way. 

But what, my friends, is to be the remedy? Work cure 
May I impose upon you to explain my diagnosis i^^ "^^ ^^^^ 
of this very complex situation — made after a 
careful survey of the entire south-eastern section 
of Europe, from the Baltic beginning at Danzig 
south to Warsaw, Cracow, Lemburg, Czernowitz, 
Bucharest, Belgrade and Trieste. Work is the 
remedy, my friends, nothing but everyday hard 
work, and hundreds of thousands of anxious 
hearts and willing hands are ready to seize upon 
the first opportunity that is offered. 

You all know that I am a locomotive builder, 
and when I urge as first aid to the injured a few 
new locomotives, please do not attribute my 
action to selfish motives — I do not see how the 

11 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

Baldwin Locomotive Works can do much without 
material assistance. This company has already 
sold Poland 150 locomotives, Belgium 75 loco- 
motives, and just recently Roumania 25 locomo- 
tives amounting in value to more than $15,000,- 
000 and all on a credit basis. This company 
was willing in so far as its capacity could be en- 
croached upon to assist Serbia, and Czecho-Slo- 
vakia in like manner, and when in those 
countries, I partially agreed to do so depending 
upon assistance from the War Finance Corpor- 
ation. 
ISeed of War Imagine my mortification to be told upon my 
Finance body arrival here that the War Finance Corporation 
had ''blown up" and could no longer make it 
possible to advance credit to central and south- 
eastern European countries for those things now 
needed to put work into the hands of the poor, 
and make transportation of foodstuffs, supplies, 
exports and human beings more normal. 

If you gentlemen could travel from Warsaw 
to Bucharest, via Czernowitz which takes you 
through Galicia, I am sure that an unanimous 
appeal would upon your return be made to the 
Secretary of the Treasury to place in action once 
more the War Finance Corporation with the same 
executive head, Mr. Eugene Meyer, for the pur- 
pose of enabling you to furnish the machinery 
and materials, that are, far more than foodstuffs, 
vitally necessary to these people. 

12 



POLAND : Her Problems and Her Future 

Imagine, Gentlemen, — men, women and chil- Waiting three 
dren with standing room only inside the cars, ^^^J^^ f^^ 
crowding the platforms and steps and lastly com- 
pletely covering the car roofs — perfectly happy, 
however, that at last they were on a train and on 
their way — I talked to women at wayside stations 
who had waited in vain for three weeks for stand- 
ing room only in which to ride. 

What would you say if on a business trip you 
were to be left standing in a railway station en- 
route for several hours, because your locomotive 
had been cut off to move a freight train to the 
next station and you could not move until it 
had returned? 

Shops, with their roofs destroyed and walls 
ventilated by shell holes were being used while 
slow repairs were in progress — I saw no despair, 
gentlemen, I saw nothing but the cheerfulness of 
health, and a thankfulness that the Germans 
had left them at least a remembrance of what 
they formerly possessed. 

I saw nothing to support the cry of destitution, Saw no 
disease and despair in these countries; such con- despair 
ditions may prevail in Vienna and Budapest, be- 
cause their great cities have been stripped of their 
supporting territory and they must go down. 

What I experienced in Poland was repeated in 
Roumania and here I was entertained by the 
King and Queen — Brave Queen of the Rouman- 
ians — She knows what her country and her 

13 



POLAJND: Her Problems and Her Future 

people need — work — and to enable them to work 
she is bending every effort toward securing ma- 
chinery and supplies to put the transportation of 
the country in working order, and to enable her 
workshops and factories to open for the employ- 
ment of the common people. 

I have asked English builders of locomotives 
to assist us and take orders from these people. 
I have explained how this can be done on a barter 
basis, and I expect shortly to hear good reports. 

The machine tool builders of America should 
especially interest themselves, and here through 
the instrumentality of this chamber offer that 
relief to Poland which can only come through 
them. 
Government \ trust that you will also use every effort to 
bring about a resumption of business by the War 
Finance Corporation as without some such gov- 
ernmental assistance our meager individual abil- 
ity to finance long time credit sales will prevent 
the rapid relief these peoples require, deserve 
and must have. 

In conclusion I hope that there will be a will- 
ingness among you to become members of the 
American-Polish Chamber of Commerce and lend 
your influence and resources toward our work. 

I also desire to call your attention to a loan of 
fifty millions of dollars which the Polish Gov- 
ernment is now starting to raise in this country, 

14 



assistance 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

and chiefly among citizens of Polish birth and 
descent, are wilhng to co-operate in the financial 
restoration of their country. 

It is also expected by the Polish Government ^^^ ^^^ 
that a certain number of American Business Men ^ ^^ ^^^ 
will take an earnest part in this loan, and sub- 
scribe themselves. This loan is an investment 
secured by a people having already shown re- 
markable capacity in solidity and recuperation. 




15 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 



The Ideals of Poland 

By His Excellency Hugh Gibson 

American Minister to Poland 



I 



WAS considerably dismayed to be asked to 
tell all about Poland. I was a good deal 
more dismayed to be asked to do it in about 
five minutes, because sometimes when I get 
started talking about Poland, it is hard to stop. 
Optimism is About all I can undertake to do is to utter 
essential ^ ^^^^ ^£ optimism, which I do feel is essential 
to any intelligent action in our dealings with 
Eastern Europe. I think that our friendship 
for Poland would not be well served by blinking 
the very real problems that face the Polish Gov- 
ernment, the very serious obstacles that remain 
to be overcome. 

It is perhaps safe to say that no government, 
since orderly governments were established, has 
been faced with so many serious problems, so 
many vital problems, at one time. But to my 
mind the essential thing is not the magnitude of 
the problems, but the manner and the spirit in 
which they are approached. And it is in that 
phase of the matter that I find ground for optim- 
ism. 

16 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

I would like to point out that we must not try Think in 
to estimate the situation there on the basis of our P^^^^d's 
own standard at home. The people of Poland ^^^^^ 
have a capacity for suffering, and for recupera- 
tion that we have no idea of. And we must try 
to think in terms of Poland. 

I had a friend who came to Paris early in the 
war; he came from Trenton, and he found that 
they did things in a peculiar way in France, not 
the way they were used to doing in Trenton. 
One day he said to me, '"^You know, Gibson, I 
find there is a whale of a lot of difference between 
Paris and Trenton, and you notice it more in 
Paris than you do in Trenton." So we must try 
to remember the difference between Washington 
and Warsaw, and I can assure you we notice it Warsaw and 
more in Warsaw than we do in Washington. Washington 

I won't bore you with a detailed statement of 
the problems of the Polish Government, but I 
would like to run through rapidly some of the 
more vital ones that are generally overlooked 
here. For one thing, Poland has practically no 
settled frontiers, with a consequent inability to 
dispose of the rich natural resources of Silesia- 
Teschen, Galicia, and the great forests of the 
East, until she has reached some sort of a solu- 
tion of those problems. That is not a matter 
that lies in her hands. She is waiting for plebis- 
cites; she is waiting for a new Russia to emerge 
from chaos, with whom she can conclude agree- 

17 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

ments as to her Eastern frontiers; she is doing 
every blessed thing she can in maintaining or- 
derly government within the limits held by the 
Polish Armies. 

The typhus Then, too, there is a great typhus epidemic; 
epidemic Poland is doing everything she can to take care 
of that, and is fighting that typhus epidemic with 
inadequate supplies of medicine, and inadequate 
personnel. She is trying not only to clean up 
her own house, but to protect the houses of her 
neighbors, and it is up to us to try to help out on 
that campaign. We are doing pretty well, and 
the Secretary of War is trying to keep up a big 
sanitary personnel there, under the command of 
Colonel Gilquist. If we don't do it, we will have 
to pay for it very heavily, by having to fight the 
typhus at home. 

The financial situation is another very difficult 
one, but it is being met with spirit and energy, 
and I have confidence that they will straighten 
it out, with the success of this loan, the reestab- 
lishment of exports, and the resumption of in- 
dustry. 

Fighting a ( Poland has a costly war on her Eastern fron- 
costly war jj^j. p^^^ some of US think that she is fighting 
the battles of the world when she is fighting the 
Bolshevists. That is a very costly thing, both in 
human effort, and in money, and in supplies. 
Fortunately, she is fighting now with supplies 
taken from the Bolshevists^ 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

Another problem is the idevastation of the Working 
whole country, a devastation of which we can "'^^"'^^^ 
have no conception. After four years of great 
armies, being swept backward and forward across 
that country, deliberately destroying, ravaging 
the country, burning down houses and villages, 
the fields have become overgrown with brush, 
and even with young forests. 

The Polish people have gone back to work 
like a lot of ants. They are living in holes in 
the grounds, in old trenches, in dugouts, sub- 
sisting on grass, and roots of trees with occasional 
beets and turnips, while they rebuild the old 
homes, and bring the fields back under culti- 
vation. That may sound like the vaporings of a 
sensationalist, but it is only too true, as I have 
seen in wide stretches of Eastern Poland. 

Those are just a few of the immediate and Misunder- 
pressing problems ; they have plenty more. Then stood abroad 
they suffer under the disadvantage of being mis- 
understood to a certain extent abroad. For one 
thing, the Poles are supposed to be very agres- 
sive, and to be chiefly concerned with picking 
quarrels with their neighbors. I don't think that 
needs any agrument. The events of the past year 
dispose of it pretty effectively. When I went to 
Poland, there was not a mile of frontier that was 
not held by some active enemy. The Czechs on 
the South were driving the Poles out of Teschen; 
the whole frontier was boihng with excitement 

19 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

and resentment. The Germans held a frontier 
that extended all the way from Upper Silesia to 
Lithuania; there were daily bombardments that 
took a toll of lives, and ruined towns. Where the 
Germans stopped, the Lithuanians began, and 
there it was very lively, up to the point where the 
Bolshevists took up the work. They stretched 
away South to where the Ukrainians were fight- 
ing, and that completed the circle. 
Keeping General Pilsudski and Mr. Paderewski set to 

peace with ^qj.]^ ^Ni\]l great energy on that question. They 
'le^g ors j.^^]J2ed the importance of it, and what they have 
accomplished is a great achievement in construc- 
tive statesmanship. Today there is no fighting 
on the German frontier. By patient work, they 
got the Germans to withdraw their troops. They 
have reached an armistice with the Lithuanians. 
They have submitted their troubles with the 
Czechs, first, to arbitration, and then to plebis- 
cite. The Ukrainians, who were active enemies 
a little while ago, have been turned into active 
friends, and are now fighting side by side with the 
Poles against the Bolshevists and except on the 
Bolshevist front, there is practically not a Polish 
soldier on any frontier of Poland — the frontiers 
are held by customs guards. 

Enthusiastic Then there is the charge of militarism. The 

patriots P()]^g ^j.g supposed to be careering around mili- 

taristically. They do take a great enthusiasm in 

serving in the Polish Army, but they waited one 

20 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

hundred and fifty years for the privilege of 
marching in those ranks under their own flags. 
I think we might have a Httle enthusiasm, too. in 
that way. 

Then there is another httle charge — the last 
one I will trouble you with — of imperialism. 
They are supposed to be setting out to conquer 
the world. As a matter of fact, that charge grows 
chiefly from the clamorings of a small group of 
people who do not represent either the govern- 
ment or the sound public opinion of the people. 
Nobody pays any attention to them in Poland, 
but I am sorry to say they get some sort of hear- 
ing abroad. 

But both the government and the people have ^ strona 
made it clear repeatedly that they realize just people with 
as a matter of sound common sense that the thing many friends 
for them to do is to set up an effective government 
within a territory that is Polish, not only his- 
torically, but in the desire to be governed from 
Warsaw. They also realize that if they support 
the neighboring peoples, like the Lithuanians, 
and the White Russians, and Ukranians, with 
sympathy and active support, the natural ten- 
dency will be in time for these peoples to turn 
to Poland for support and cooperation. It will 
be establishing a group that will be strong with 
the strength that comes from the willingness of 
all the people involved, and not from the domin- 
ation of unwilling nations. 

21 



POLAND: Her Problems and Her Future 

Order out of When I went to Poland a little over a year 
wars chaos ^^^^ £^j, ^j^^ g^^g^ ^.-^^^^ ^^ rather a few months 

before I went there, it was a country without a 
government, practically a howling wilderness 
from end to end, a country without any organized 
railway system, or distribution of food, or any 
of the normal facilities of modern life. Today 
there is a very distinct contrast to that time. 
Orderly government is maintained throughout all 
the territories held by the Polish Government. 
The railway system, while not yet perfect, is rap- 
idly getter better. Food distribution is improv- 
ing day by day, and altogether, there is a decided 
progress. And, in spite of the sufferings of the 
past six years — sufferings that we can hardly un- 
derstand — the progress of the past few months 
has been sufficient not only to keep up the high 
morale of the Army and the civil population, but 
to key them to a higher pitch, which gives us 
every reason to hope that Poland will pull 
through, overcome all her obstacles, and estab- 
lish herself as a center of orderly government, 
that is essential to the maintenance of order and 
peace in Eastern Europe. 



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